Theban Sorcery
Theban Sorcery The Ritual Discipline of the Lancea et Sanctum, Theban Sorcery was discovered early in the covenant’s history. According to the writings of St. Daniel, one of the earliest members of the covenant, he was led by an angel naming itself “Amoniel” to a cavern deep beneath Thebes in Egypt. The cavern walls were covered in inscribed incantations and diagrams. These formed the basis of Theban Sorcery, which Daniel faithfully recorded and passed on to his fellow Kindred. Theban Sorcery is stern, deliberate, and judgmental — the product of a harsh, uncompromising faith — and the power it calls down feels the same way. Some ritualists characterize the power of miracles as transmitting the touch of God’s Curse (as opposed to the Beast) onto the subject. Sanctified miracles provide divinations, reveal wrong-doers and punish those who trespass against the church’s laws. Performing a Theban miracle is an act of concentrated faith, mentally exhausting and not done in haste. Every miracle requires a physical sacrament, a symbolic item that crumbles to dust as though it were a slain elder when the ritual reaches a crescendo. Learning Theban Sorcery Only priests of Lancea et Sanctum Status • or more may learn Theban Sorcery or miracles for use with it. If the ritualist loses all status in the covenant, he can no longer learn new miracles. Learning the Discipline entails oaths to never reveal its secrets to outsiders — and the church has miracles to find and enact vengeance upon oath-breakers. A character may only learn rituals rated equal to or less than his dots in Theban Sorcery. Because it requires the careful, deliberate exercise of intellect and faith, Theban Sorcery requires the ritualist to have maintained his faculties. A Sanctified ritualist must have a Humanity rating equal to or higher than the dot rating of any miracle he wishes to attempt. Ritualist characters may buy rites and miracles separately from the Ritual Discipline itself for two Experiences each. Every dot of Crúac or Theban Sorcery (including the first) also comes with a “free” rite or miracle, taught by the covenant as part of ongoing training. If a ritualist has lost the status needed to learn new rituals, he can still buy new dots of the Ritual Discipline, but does not receive free rituals. The Sacrifice Theban miracles cost one Willpower to mentally prepare the ritualist, and a sacrament offered to the saints and angelic forces who oversee miracles in the Sanctified’s hagiography. At the end of a failed ritual attempt or when a miracle succeeds, the sacrament crumbles to dust. Many ritualists go further than these minimum requirements, adding props, assistants, and elaborate performances. These have no mechanical effect, but can play an important psychological role in mustering the ritualist’s Willpower. These effects may return spent willpower at the end of the ritual, but there's no guarentee. The Request Once the sacrifice has been made, the ritualist harnesses the power using her Ritual Discipline. Dice Pool: Intelligence + Academics + Theban Sorcery Action: Extended. See the Extended Action rules, on page 170. Ritualists may roll as many times as the unmodified dice pool. The base time per roll is half an hour, reduced to 15 minutes if the character has more dots in the Ritual Discipline than the dot rating of the ritual being cast. A ritual must be completed in one attempt. Ritualists do not receive any bonus for attempting a ritual having already failed with a near miss; rituals automatically fail if interrupted; and ritualists may not use Defense while casting. Many rituals are also Contested or Resisted, as noted in their descriptions. Unless a Merit that modifies extended actions expressly says that it applies to Sorcery, Crúac or Theban Sorcery rolls are not affected by it. The exception is the Library Merit (p. 121), which applies to Theban Sorcery rituals at the Storyteller’s discretion. Roll Results Dramatic Failure: The ritual completely fails, and the sacrifice is wasted. The ritualist gains either the Tempted (for Crúac) or Humbled (Theban Sorcery) Condition. The next ritual attempted by the vampire suffers a –2 dice penalty. Failure: The ritualist is having difficulty, and accumulates no successes. The player decides whether to abandon the ritual entirely or continue. If the ritualist continues, she gains the Stumbled Condition. Success: The ritual accumulates successes. If the target number of successes is met, the ritual’s effect immediately takes place. Exceptional Success: the ritualist makes great strides in achieving the ritual. The player decides which of the following effects takes place in addition to accumulating successes. • Reduce the target number of successes by her dots in the Ritual Discipline. • Reduce the time per roll to 15 minutes (or to 5 minutes if she has more dots in the Discipline than the rating of the ritual). • Apply the Ecstatic (Crúac) or Raptured (Theban Sorcery) Condition if and when the ritual succeeds. If the target number of successes is met, the ritual’s effect immediately takes place. Suggested Modifiers: Modifier Situation +1 to +3 Power is turned on or applies to a vampire with whom the ritualist already has blood sympathy. Crúac doubles this modifier to +2 to +6. 0 The ritualist is unaffected by threats or distractions –1 to –3 The ritualist is rushed or distracted. The penalty is cumulative with multiple distractions. 0 to +3 The ritualist prepares an elaborate ritual above the minimum sacrifice. Theban Sorcery Only. Defending Against Sorcery The subject of a blood ritual does not need to be present for the ritual to take effect, but ritualists are wary when using rituals to target Kindred and other supernatural beings. The victim of an unwanted ritual has a chance to shake it off, and the touch of the ritualist’s vampiric nature exposes her to her intended victim. • Rituals note in their descriptions if they are Contested or Resisted, along with the dice pool involved. Contesting a roll is reflexive. • Via a sensation much like blood sympathy, vampires are always aware when someone uses a blood sorcery ritual on them — their Beasts react to the ritualist’s sorcerous presence from the moment the sacrifice is made until the ritual fails or succeeds. This applies even to vampires in daysleep or torpor, although they can’t do anything about it until they wake. Note that vampires don’t know what a ritual is doing, just that one is taking place. • Conscious victims may spend Willpower to increase the dice pool to Contest by +3, or add a +2 bonus to Resistance. • Frenzying increases a victim’s dice pool or Resistance as though she spent Willpower without requiring the expenditure. • While the ritual is taking place, the victim increases his blood sympathy to the ritualist by two ranks if he is of the same clan, or gains it at “Thrice Removed” if he is of a different clan. Theban Sorcery Miracles The following miracles are examples of those taught by the Lancea et Sanctum. Blood Scourge (•) Target number of successes: 6 Sacrament: The ritualist’s own blood — at least one Vitae The ritualist transforms a portion of his blood into a weapon. At any point until sunrise, he may create a stinging whip of Vitae (a 2L weapon). The whip crumbles to dust at the end of the scene in which it is used, or when the ritual’s effect ends with the sunrise. Vitae Reliquary (•) Target number of successes: 5 Sacrament: any object up to size ••• The ritualist infuses an object with up to the ritual’s Potency in Vitae. The Vitae stored is mystically transferred from the ritualist’s body, and can be retrieved by any vampire, Strix, or ghoul who touches the object. The Vitae still causes Vinculum and blood addiction in anyone drinking it. After one lunar month, the ritual ends and the object crumbles to dust. Blandishment of Sin (•) Target number of successes: 5 Contested by: Resolve + Blood Potency Sacrament: a scrap of paper with the victim’s name written on it The ritualist names a victim, who must be within one mile of the ritual. The next time any bashing damage is inflicted on the victim, it is upgraded to lethal. The ritual upgrades all damage from one single attack, and ends at sunrise if the victim is not injured that night. A four-dot version of this miracle, requiring 8 successes, upgrades damage from lethal to aggravated. Curse of Babel (••) Target number of successes: 6 Resisted by: Resolve Sacrament: an animal or human tongue The victim of this ritual, who must be within one mile of the ritual, is rendered unable to speak or write until the next sunrise. Liar’s Plague (••) Target number of successes: 5 Contested by: Resolve + Blood Potency Sacrament: an insect carapace The ritualist curses his victim, who must be present for the ritual, to not tell any falsehoods. If the victim lies over the course of the next scene, beetles swarm from his mouth. Malediction of Despair (•••) Target number of successes: 13 Contested by: Resolve + Blood Potency Sacrament: a lock of the victim’s hair The ritualist curses her victim, who must be within one mile of the ritual, with regard to a specific action. The next time the victim engages in that action, he suffers a –5 dice penalty. This occurs only once. The effect of the ritual ends if not used after a lunar month. Gift of Lazarus (••••) Target number of successes: 8 Sacrament: a communion wafer placed under a corpse’s tongue The ritualist raises a servant by animating a human corpse. The servant has no Willpower, but retains all skills the person had when alive. For every day the servant was dead prior to this ritual being used, reduce an Attribute by one. The ritualist may command the servant herself or tell it to accept orders from another. If its rightmost Health box is filled with aggravated damage or a full lunar month passes, the ritual ends and the servant is destroyed. Stigmata (••••) Target number of successes: 5 Resisted by: Stamina Sacrament: a crucifix The ritualist curses his victim — who must be present for the ritual — with the wounds of Christ. The Stigmata last for the ritual’s Potency in turns. Mortal victims suffer one point of lethal damage per turn from blood loss. Vampires and ghouls lose one Vitae per turn. If a vampire runs out of Vitae through this ritual, he begins to take lethal damage instead, provoking a frenzy. Transubstatiation (•••••) Target number of successes: 8 Contested by: Stamina + Blood Potency Sacrament: a drop of liquid gold The ritualist transforms one substance to another — water into wine, lead into gold, a human into stone, or a wolf into a cat. The object, creature, or person to be transformed must be present for the ritual. The ritual cannot affect anything larger than the ritualist, cannot create intelligence and does not harm the things it transforms, although damage or injury sustained by the transformed subject remains when the ritual wears off. All transformations are undone at the next sunrise.